Off-Broadway Manhattan Theatre Club producer Lynne Meadow and actress Sarah Jessica Parker understood this play was a little more than “love me — love my dog.” They launched it, with great results, in May 1995. Twenty years later in 2015, Mathew Broderick (married to Parker in real life) starred in it as Greg in the Broadway revival.

A love of dogs is not particular to Chinese. In English, people use the phrase "tired like a dog" to say they are exhausted and say "love me, love my dog" when they hope their partner loves the way they are. Coincidentally, there are phrases expressing these meanings in Chinese, proving again that we are not that different.

St. Bernard of Menthon’s monks (thầy tu) kept and trained enormous dogs to care for lost and imperiled (đẩy vào tình trạng hiểm nghèo, làm cho gặp nguy hiểm) pilgrims (người hành hương) trying to get to Rome. The dogs were trained to flop down on top of the stranded pilgrim to keep them warm with their body heat. The monks even attached little kegs of brandy to the dogs' collars in the mistaken belief that liquor would warm the frozen victims. (actually, the opposite happens.) The dogs came to be called “Saint Bernards.” The saint is always depicted with one of these magnificent, vigilant (cảnh giác, thận trọng) beasts next to him. Though he didn’t coin the phrase, “Love me, love my dog,” he used it once in a homily―and probably pretty often after that―and the phrase got stuck on him.

Beijing’s biggest funeral parlor (nhà tang lễ) held an open day last Thursday that featured a virtual reality simulation of death, reported The Beijing News — though it left some wondering why you would want to experience death prematurely (sớm, xảy ra trước thời gian thông thường, hoặc thời gian mong đợi, đẻ non).

In addition to the death experience, visitors can use VR to explore funeral services with a five-minute session that goes through corpse (xác chết, tử thi, thi hài) delivery and storage, mortuary (thuộc về tang lễ, nhà xác) preparations, the memorial service, and cremation (hỏa thiêu, hỏa táng, đốt ra tro) — a tour that would take an hour in real life.

The integrated GPS machine requires each driver to swipe (quẹt thẻ) their staff identity card before they can start the meter, and allows the taxi company to monitor each trip live. The device also supports multiple forms of payment, including bank cards and mobile payment platforms like WeChat Wallet and Alipay.

Following a trial in late 2017, the municipal government rolled out the smart devices through four cab companies earlier this month, in the hope that the machines will stop drivers from defrauding (giành được của ai cái gì bằng cách lừa gạt) customers with rigged (thủ đoạn xảo trá, trò chơi khăm) meters and invoices, or loaning their cars to unlicensed drivers.

“From the perspective of the consumer, this ensures convenience, security, and safety,”.

Taxi fraud is extremely common in China: In 2013 alone, Beijing saw 4,680 complaints, many of which involved meter fraud.